A Jay's Heart
by Stargone
Summary: Happy birthday to you...Happy birthday to you...Happy birthday dear Hayjay5304...Happy birthday to you! (And many more...!) This is my birthday present to you, Jay! Hope you like it!
1. Birth

The kits were born beneath the stars, in a wide field. The tall, soft, green grass waved gently in the breeze, along with the sprays of wildflowers. The stars twinkled and glimmered, casting a pleasant, delicate light down on the world below. The still shadows of the night lay over everything like a blanket of new-fallen snow.

A pained she-cat's yowls tore through the night, and soon, the squeals of newborn kits chimed in.

The stars watched silently as the three small kits were nudged against their mother's belly by a medicine cat. The kits squirmed and suckled hungrily.

 _Perhaps it is time,_ the stars thrummed.

"What will you name them?" asked the medicine cat.

The mother gazed down on her kits with weary pride. "Nightkit," she meowed. "Emberkit." She nodded to the black kit and the ginger kit.

"What about the last one?" the medicine cat asked.

The queen smiled as she looked at the small gray kit. "I think I shall call her Jaykit."

The stars smiled.

* * *

 **HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY! YOU ROCK!**


	2. Watching

_She was soaring…swooping through the air…_

"Jaykit! Jaykit, wake up!"

 _A dark form ducked in front of her…_

"JAYKIT!"

 _Something jabbed her in the side. Hard._

"Ow! What?" Jaykit shoved her sister's paw away. "Stop poking me!"

"She's awake!" said Emberkit.

 _"_ _Finally,"_ said Nightkit, rolling her eyes.

"What did you wake me for, anyway?" Jaykit mumbled unhappily.

Nightkit sighed. "You forgot our ceremony was today, didn't you?"

Jaykit yawned. "Hm?"

"Our _apprentice ceremony?"_ Nightkit's tone was one of exasperation. "StarClan, Jaykit, you DID forget!"

Jaykit shook her head, embarrassed. "Um…no, I didn't."

Nightkit sighed and padded away, rolling her eyes. Jaykit got up, shook out her fur, and followed her sister, Emberkit right behind.

They left the nursery to find their mother, Firecloud, waiting. She inspected her three kits, smoothing their ruffled fur. "Oh, I'm so proud of you three," she purred.

"…all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Highrock."

The clan began to gather. Nightkit, Emberkit, and Jaykit padded forward, nudged by their mother. They gazed up at their leader, Smokestar.

"Nightkit, Emberkit, and Jaykit," he meowed solemnly, "you have reached the age of six moons. It is time for you to become apprentices."

Emberkit hopped up and down excitedly. Nightkit huffed and scooted away from her. Jaykit ignored her sisters and waited patiently.

"Nightkit," Smokestar began. "From this moment forward, and until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Nightpaw. Snowclaw." Smokestar glanced over at the warrior. "You will mentor Nightpaw. I hope that you pass on your loyalty and good humor to your apprentice."

Nightpaw snorted, but touched noses with the happy warrior.

"Emberkit," Smokestar continued. "From this moment forward, and until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Emberpaw."

Emberpaw's tail quivered with excitement.

"Specklewhisper. You will be Emberpaw's mentor. I hope that you pass on your kindness and bravery to your apprentice."

Specklewhisper smiled and padded forward to her new apprentice.

Smokestar turned, at long last, to Jaykit. "Jaykit, from this moment forward, until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Jaypaw. Icerain." He turned to the deputy. "You are ready for another apprentice. You will mentor Jaypaw. I hope that you pass on your strength and reliability to Jaypaw."

Jaypaw smiled. Icerain was a good mentor. She was firm, but kind. They touched noses.

"Nightpaw! Emberpaw! Jaypaw!" The whole clan cheered their names. Jaypaw swelled with pride. She was finally an apprentice.

"Can we go explore the territories?" asked Emberpaw, suddenly sounding a little shy.

"Of course!" Specklewhisper purred. "Your sisters can come too."

They padded out of camp for the first time, with Icerain in the lead. Jaypaw looked around and around in awe.

"This way," Icerain called, and they padded out into an open field. From here, Jaypaw could see distant mountains. She gasped.

"This was where you were born, you know," Icerain told them. "In this very field."

Jaypaw nodded wordlessly. She smiled.

* * *

 _The cliff was tall, but she wasn't afraid. She peered over the edge, relishing the height. Her eyes were sharp, and she could spot the tiny cats moving below her. Her eyes narrowed, and her ears swiveled. She could hear a young heart, one like hers, fluttering away below her._

 _"_ _Another one," she mused. "Interesting."_


	3. Trapped

"Today, we're going hunting," Icerain told Jaypaw. "Emberpaw and Nightpaw are coming, too."

Jaypaw nodded "Okay." She finished up the mouse she'd been eating and followed her mentor out of camp.

"I bet I'll catch the most prey!" whispered Emberpaw.  
"No way!" Nightpaw shot back.

"Maybe _I_ will," said Jaypaw.

They all looked at each other challengingly, then took off, into the forest.

Jaypaw soon caught sight of a bird. She dropped into a crouch, stalked forward slowly…and then she pounced.

The bird struggled frantically beneath her claws, its wings beating against the ground. Jaypaw suddenly felt an ache in her chest, a burning pain, so hot she could barely breath. She lifted her paws and let the bird go.

All of a sudden, the ache eased, and she could breath again. Watching the bird spiral into the air, she felt relief wash over her in a wave.

She kept going in search of prey, feeling a little odd about that whole episode, but trying to ignore it. Before long, she scented a mouse. She padded forward lightly in a crouch, spotting it between the roots of a tree.

She heard the fluttering of a bird's wings. She looked around, but saw no birds.

The fluttering increased in volume. She shook her head, trying to clear it out. _It's just an echo from the bird,_ she told herself nervously. _Just an echo._

But it wouldn't leave. She pawed at her ear. The mouse, finally noticing her, scampered away.

 _Flip-flap…_

 _Flap-flap…_

 _Flitter-flutter…_

The wings were beating a frantic rhythm inside her head. Struggling.

 _Flip-flap-flutter…_

Desperate.

 _Flitter-flutter-flap-flap…_

Trapped.

 _FLIP-FLITTER-FLITTER-FLAP-FLIP-FLAP-FLUTTER—_

Jaypaw dropped to the ground, clawing at her ears. It was trapped in her skull, trying to get out, to get free.

"Jaypaw! Jaypaw, are you okay?"

The voice was faint around the wingbeats.

"LET ME OUT!" she screamed, and then everything turned black.

* * *

She woke in the medicine cat's den with him and his apprentice hovering over her.

"Jaypaw!" the apprentice, Skypaw, purred. "How do you feel?"

Jaypaw sat up her head spun. "Not so great," she mumbled.

"Take it easy," the medicine cat, Rabbitbounce, meowed gently.

Icerain was pacing nervously at the entrance to the den. She sighed in relief at the sight of Jaypaw waking up. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought we'd lost you, Jaypaw. Do you know what happened?"

Jaypaw shook her head slowly, thinking of the wing sounds. "No, not really…"

Icerain's tail tip twitched. "You just fell down and started screaming about letting you out. Do you know what you were talking about?"

Jaypaw glanced around at them. They were looking at her as if she were mentally unstable. She wouldn't tell them about the wings.

"No," she answered. "I've got no clue."


	4. Dream

**Sorry about the short chapters but I can't do long ones...**

* * *

For the next few days, Jaypaw stayed in the medicine cats' den. And by the time she'd left, the story of her "fit" had spread. Some watched her with eyes aglow, wondering if she could be bringing them a message from StarClan. Some stayed far away from her, muttering that she was losing her mind.

Every now and then, the wing sounds would come back, crashing through her mind, nearly driving her insane. When it happened, she would hide away in a dark place and curl up into a ball until it was over.

It wasn't long before cats began to notice. Especially her sisters.

"Are you okay, Jaypaw?" Emberpaw asked worriedly.

"You haven't been yourself lately," said Nightpaw.

"I'm fine, Jaypaw assured them. They'd just finished battle practice, and were sharing a large squirrel. "I've just been a little under the weather, that's all."

"Sure," Nightpaw snorted, but they said nothing else on the subject.

* * *

That night, Jaypaw had a dream.

It was dark, and a voice spoke to her.

"My name is Eaglefeather. I am just like you. You are one of us. We need your help. The prophecy has failed so many times. Seek Owl, and know your heart."

When Jaypaw woke up, her back ached. It felt tight and swollen. She winced and thought back on the dream. Who (or what) was "Owl"? And why should she seek them?

She stood from her nest, stretched her stiff muscles, and padded out of the apprentices den, fluffing out her fur against the falling rain. She ducked into the medicine cat den.

"Skypaw!" she whispered. "Skypaw?"

Two wide blue eyes opened in the dark. "Jaypaw?"

"Skypaw, I had a dream. Do you promise not to tell anyone?"

Skypaw nodded. Jaypaw told her about the dream. "What do you think it means? Is it a sign from StarClan? It spoke of a prophecy…"

"I'm not really sure," Skypaw admitted. "But there's only on way to learn more. You need to find Owl."


	5. Leaving

**Sorry for the wait!**

* * *

Jaypaw entered camp, carrying a mouse she'd just caught. As she dropped it on the fresh-kill pile, she could feel Skypaw's eyes on her. It had been nearly two days since they'd discussed the dream, but Jaypaw had decided not to leave camp. Why should she, just because some strange dream had told her to?

But the dream kept coming back every night, more and more insistent. Also, her back continued to hurt. She'd asked Rabbitbounce about it, but he'd said he didn't know what was wrong. He'd given her a few poppy seeds to help with the pain, but they didn't do much.

The pain, combined with the wing sounds in her head, combined with the recurring dreams, made it increasingly hard for Jaypaw to get enough sleep. She could barely function in the daytime. And everyone noticed. Jaypaw dropped her mouse on the fresh-kill pile and yawned.

 _Flitter-flap…_

Jaypaw shook her head, ducking into the apprentices' den and climbing into her nest.

 _Flutter-flitter-flip…_

And then, a curious voice cut through the sounds.

 _So you're the new one. Interesting._

The voice was sharp, and it did not sound friendly.

Then Eaglefeather's voice pushed the other aside. _Find Owl. Follow your heart. It will lead you true._

 _Flap-flutter-flutter-flap…_

There were four birds now, all flapping together.

"Get _out!"_ Jaypaw hissed, and her back exploded with pain. She groaned.

"Jaypaw, you okay?" asked Earlypaw from the mouth of the den, looking concerned.

"Yeah," she gasped, "I'm okay."

The wings and the voices had faded away, but the pain and the questions remained. It was getting worse.

She stood up stiffly and padded back out of the den. There was only one way she could get answers. Skypaw had been right all along. She had to find Owl.

But how? How exactly was she supposed to "follow her heart" as Eaglefeather had suggested?

She closed her eyes and felt around inside her. She felt the flighty, beating, fluttering thing that was her heart. She felt three…links, sort of, connected to it. And one of them was Owl's she realized. She grasped it somehow, and suddenly she knew which way to go.

She opened her eyes and bounded over to Skypaw, who was sorting herbs. "Skypaw?"

Skypaw looked up. "Yes?"

Jaypaw lowered her voice. "I'm leaving now. I'm going to find Owl."

Skypaw nodded. "Here." Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she picked up some herbs and nudged them over with a paw. "Eat these. They'll give you strength."

Jaypaw lapped them up. They tasted bitter, but she forced herself to swallow them. "Thank you."

Skypaw dipped her head in acknowledgement. "Now, go. I'll cover for you."

"Thanks so much, Skypaw."

"Hurry!"

Jaypaw snuck out of camp and set off in the direction her heart told her to go.


End file.
